Keep ICE away from airport security — pay TSA instead

On Sunday, the president announced on Truth Social that Immigration and Customs Enforcement officers will be deployed to support airport security operations as the Homeland Security shutdown drags on. It may sound like a reasonable way to address shortages of Transportation Security Administration officers, who have gone without pay for more than five weeks. However, reassigning ICE officers to airport security checkpoint makes no sense — and might even be dangerous.

To become a TSA officer requires extensive training; the procedures that enable officers to perform their jobs effectively and efficiently, and to work as a unit, cannot be learned overnight. Border czar Tom Homan clarified Sunday night that ICE officers will not be working with sophisticated technologies like Advanced Imaging for physical screening or computed tomography scanners for checked and carry-on baggage technologies. Bringing ICE officers up to speed with such technologies would take weeks, which would do nothing to resolve short-term backups at airport security checkpoints where TSA officer no-shows rates are spiking. 

That means ICE officers would have a highly restricted footprint of tasks they could perform, such as being stationed at exit gates as passengers leave airport secure areas.  

Deploying ICE officers at the entry of airport security checkpoints would be risky, potentially disrupting a well-coordinated operation. This includes checking passenger identification either manually or using the........

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